Thomas Burgess
One Hundred Miles of Knowle
Fundraising for Friends of PICU
Story
A message from Tom Burgess.
On the 26th of March at 7 pm, I will be running 100 miles within Knowle Village. A backyard ultra marathon, comprising of a 1-mile loop around the village.
This is a Solo running event and I will comply with Covid Government Guidelines throughout.
I want to support good friends of mine in raising money for the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at Southampton General which saved their daughters life not so long ago.
Please donate what you can towards this great unit within the hospital.
A message from Helen and Martin Horn. (Mum and Dad)
Chloe is a bubbly bright happy 11 year old who loved singing
and performing. She was admitted to QA hospital on Friday 13th November after 3 weeks of headaches and vomiting and numerous trips to the GP.
On Saturday 14th her condition worsened and she was taken by emergency ambulance to Southampton University hospital HDU for an emergency MRI, which indicated bacterial meningitis causing a stroke with left side paralysis. Chloe was transferred to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) to be intubated for further tests and was started on IV meds. She remained intubated until the Tuesday to give her brain a chance to rest and for the medicines to take effect. However, when she was brought round, her condition rapidly deteriorated and she was taken to surgery for an emergency life-saving craniotomy, where a portion of her skull (bone-flap) was removed to reduce the swelling on her brain and allow the surgeons to clean the infection site.
As a parent there is no worse a moment than when you are
asked to sign agreement for emergency neuro-surgery, knowing that saying ‘no’ could result in your child’s death, but equally the risk of surgery was so great that it too could be fatal.
Thankfully the surgery was successful and was the start of a
further 8 days of care on PICU. Each day post-surgery the risk of death was reduced, however, we still had very scary moments of seizures, blood pressure drops and paralysis. She needed careful monitoring and a delicate balance of IV medicines to protect her from further stroke or seizures.
We cannot emphasise enough how kind and compassionate the
team on PICU were at our lowest moment and how wonderful it was to know that she was in the safest hands.
Each child is looked after by a specialist nurse on a 1-1 basis 24/7, the nurses working 12 hour shifts and often travelling at least a 60-minute commute to get to and from their job. Every consultant was so kind as well – and I can’t tell you the hours they worked as they were always there and I am in awe of how calmly they managed the critical decisions needed to keep 18 critically ill children safe despite easily working 18 hour shifts!
There is no doubt that the quick action of the team on the Tuesday saved her life, and on two occasions afterwards, and the dedication and care they gave us all day after day was humbling.
Chloe spent a further 7 weeks in Southampton on the children’s wards for recovery and rehab. She had the bone-flap replaced 3 weeks ago and amazingly she has 95% recovered physically and is doing well on her cognitive rehab.
The staff and team caring for Chloe through her journey at
Southampton have been incredible. Tom’s quest to raise money for PICU is mad but for a fabulous cause.
Friends of PICU fund specialist equipment, essential space for the parents to rest adjacent to ward and the PICU elephant for each child.